Tritrichomonas foetus & Ronidazole treatment

I've scoured the forums and have found good advice on this so far, but would like more current info and updates from older users. Many older posts on this talked about diagnosing Tritrichomonas foetus, but I don't see much info about people's success with treatment.

About 5 months ago we got a second cat from the pound, and it seems it came into our house and got our first cat sick. They were both had diarrhea for a while, but the new cat SEEMS to be better now. The old cat is worse, and after a few trips to the vet, treating him Giardia, and another trip to the vet, we sent in a PCR test that tested positive for:
1. TRITRICHOMONAS FOETUS - This is the main thing that the vet thinks we should treat.
2. PERFRINGENS ENTEROTOXIN (toxin-forming bacteria)
3. FELINE CORONA VIRUS (1)

The vet wants to treat only #1 above as it seems to be the main cause of our troubles. I'm guessing our newer cat is also still carrying Tritrichomonas Foetus and just not showing signs (so we will probably do a PCR test on her before moving forward).

I NEED YOUR ADVICE and stories about your experiences with the only treatment available: Ronidazole.
It seem dangerous, and I want to make sure its going to solve the problem before I start treatment and possibly put me and my cat in danger of this toxic treatment. Any advice? Success stories? Alternatives?

Thanks!

I have no personal experience with TF, but wanted to make sure you've seen this page: http://www.highgait.com/page/page/3485008.htm

Thanks, I hadn't seen that site yet. Yes that kind of fills in the rest of the holes for me:
"...Since our initial TF test we have performed 300+ TF tests. Our females have continued to test negative for TF since the spring of 2006 and the kittens they have produced have also tested negative.

Two intact males and one neuter male did fail treatment in 2006. The two intact males had their diarrhea resolved by their first ronidazole treatment and have not had a recurrences of loose stools since then. All have now been retired from breeding but they will continue to carry the TF organism.

We have learned from tests performed on one of these males the shedding of the TF organism may diminish to a level where the cat will test negative if routinely tested with either a PCR or pouch type test. Whether these asymptomatic carriers can be considered safe to be amongst other cats is unknown but would likely be risky since it has been demonstrated that the number of TF shedded can be increased if diarrhea is artifically induced..."

Also, I talked to my vet again about how the Ronidazole treatment isn't yet approved. We learned more about this and that many cat medications aren't 'approved' because they don't have funding to do this and aren't part of the normal testing of these drugs (like how rats, monkey, and beagles are used for testing...)

The vet wants to treat only #1 above as it seems to be the main cause of our troubles. I'm guessing our newer cat is also still carrying Tritrichomonas Foetus and just not showing signs (so we will probably do a PCR test on her before moving forward).

I NEED YOUR ADVICE and stories about your experiences with the only treatment available: Ronidazole.
It seem dangerous, and I want to make sure its going to solve the problem before I start treatment and possibly put me and my cat in danger of this toxic treatment. Any advice? Success stories? Alternatives?

Click to expand...

If you go to the highgate site, there is contact info for Dave Dybas. He has walked many, many people through treating their cats with RDZ. He welcomes your call.

I know entire catteries who have treated all of their cats with RDZ. If they are exposed to each other, they all must be treated when one tests positive, or they can just keep re-infecting each other.

I treated all four of my cats with RDZ in 2008. It went great. Three of them had TF, one did not test positive, but I had to treat her, too. Dave will tell you, it is not like you have to wear a hazmat suit to administer RDZ. I wore latex gloves.

RDZ is not approved for use in animals that we consume. That is what is carcenogenic to us ~ ingesting it. Of all the cats I have known to be treated with RDZ, I haven't known any to succumb to cancer. Cats' life spans are much shorter than ours, and I think people would have to consume a lot of meat from animals treated with it to develop cancer over a lengthy period of time, from what I understand.

My cats with liquid diarrhea began to respond to treatment in about 4 or 5 days. This seems to be protocol. The TF was cured with treatment. I no longer have to juggle with foods or mess with raw diet, nor do I have to worry about getting TF myself (a person with a compromised immune system can actually get it. There has only been one person known to get TF from their cat.) To choose not to treat with RDZ is to risk lifelong IBD for your cat. A cat who is not treated generally cycles in and out of diarrhea. Having IBD can cause other problems. If I have a cat with TF, I would not even hesitate to treat with RDZ.

That said, I watched my 4 fur kids closely while they were being treated. I only halted treatment on one cat on day 11 (12 days of treatment is protocol) because I thought she was showing signs of pupil dilation and a little disorientation. When you see any signs of this order, stop treatment, and the side effects go right away. Not to worry.

I have seen many people through the treatment, also. I have never known anyone to have a problem with it. The only problem I have ever heard of was two cats I know of: Dave's cat Hollywood, and one other case not related to Dave, where the infected cats did not respond to treatment. This is the rare exception, though.

RDZ does treat other specific things, too, but it is not the choice for treating anything but TF. It will kill CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS, which also causes diarrhea. So if your cat has BOTH TF and the above, RDZ will kill both. There is a very good chance it will just completely cure your cat.

I agree with testing first ~ don't know why a vet would treat without testing, and I don't know why a vet would use a gamut of different antibiotics without pinpointing first. I will give them that TF is hard to diagnose. Sometimes the cat is not shedding evidence in its fecal matter, depending on the cycle, or depending on if the TF is well hidden in folds of the intestines .... There have been cats who tested negative, but when all else failed, they were put on RDZ, and completely cured of diarrhea.

The PCR is far more accurate and sensitive because taking a sample for the pouch test, it really needs to get right into the pouch. There is less chance for error with the PCR, which is a DNA test. They test the stool for TF DNA. This can be found even if the buggers have died in the sample. Knowing what I know, I would not do the pouch, but would rely on the PCR. Dave Dybas (highgate) will confirm this. He is an invaluable resource and I highly recommend calling him. He will put your fears at ease. He works right alongside Dr. Jody Gookin as part of a team to help cat owners with infected cats.

Didn't mean to write a book here, but I've been there. Good luck with your treatment. Make sure your vet only does the newer halved dose (30 - 50 mg per kg of the cat's weight), once per day, as opposed to twice).

I just want to add that I bought two Bengal kittens, not knowing they had TF. One of my other cats got the very smelly diarrhea after using the same litter box. The diarrhea smelled so bad, and my littlest Bengal Bianca, was in very bad shape form such severe diarrhea. Kittens can die from TF due to dehydration and malnutrition. I know they say cats are usually otherwise healthy though carrying the parasite, but kittens can die. I know of litters who have died from TF. I know of no cats who have died from RDZ treatment. I personally know of at least 100 cats who have been treated very successfully with RDZ. No casualties. Just healthy cats with normal poo.

I just found a link to a testimonial of an Abysinnisan cattery that was cured of TF with no bad side effects.:
http://www.pandecats.com/x/tf-our-ca...perience.shtml

When random fecal testing was done world-wide at various cat shows, results showed that 1 in 3 cats had TF. Bengals and Abys were over-represented in the numbers. If people didn't treat, can you imagine how this would continue to spread from cattery to cattery? Thankfully, many catteries do treat, and the results have been very encouraging.

Hi I just answered your PM, sorry it took so long. Dave Dybas is one of the people I was going to suggest you contact, he is great. There is another site that has experiences with this disease and the treatment. I no longer know it but can find it if you want. You have been given good advice here, most cats tolerate the RDZ, you just need to educate yourself what to watch for and keep a close eye. As Dave and Dr. Gookin told me if you see signs QUIT, it is tempting to keep going to try to rid this but don't! It is usually the people who continue that end up in trouble because this medication accumulates in the body and the reactions can continue for several days after you quit. If my cats could tolerate it I would treat in a heartbeat. We got through 2 weeks at the lowest possible dose but it was sub therapeutic and did not help for more than a month. As for RDZ treating Clostridium, I asked Dr. Gookin that question and her answer was that they had not tested that theory so the answer was not known at this time. Mine have Clostridium as a side effect of TF, which Dr. Gookin said was quite common, so I was hoping we could kill two birds with one stone. As they did not tolerate the RDZ the Clostridium has continued to be an issue for most of thier lives, they are almost 4. Luckily they are not having serious issues at this time with either disease, just an occassional mild soft stool that resolves in 1-2 day by itself and it is not that bad. One sad event that occured for us in January is we lost one of our Cockers to Clostridium, he got it from a visit to the litter box when the pet gate got left open. He showed no signs of illness but it went to the enterotoxin stage quickly and he died within a few hours after the vomitting and diarhea started, he was not even 4 yrs old. Clostridium can kill.

Good luck

Hi,
We brought a new kitten into our home a few months ago. The little guy tested positive for Giardia so we had him treated with metronzadole meanwhile keeping him separate from the other cats till after treatment was done. We had him retested and came back negative, so shorty after Vet gave the ok to put him in with our other three cats. Long story short all the cats now have diarreah. We ended up doing a pool sample of all four cats and came back giardia positive and TF positive. We just started treatment of Ronidazole on all four cats however one keeps puking up the liquid form of this medication. I am wondering if anyone else out there has had a kitten that can't keep the Ronidazole liquid form down? Should I get the pill form just for the one kitten that keeps puking up the liquid Ronidazole? I am waiting to hear back from my Vet Monday morning when he's back to work. Any suggestions out there is greatly appreciated.